Malayalam cinema witnessed the emergence of a brilliant director when Maheshinte Prathikaram was released – Dileesh Pothan. Now, as the actor-turned director gears up for the release of his second directorial venture Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum, the audience can’t wait to see yet another ‘Pothettan’ magic on screen. The teaser of the movie, which came without much hullabaloo, became a hit within no time. Here, Dileesh Pothan talks about his new movie:

Thondimuthalum Driksaakshiyum

It is a small plot, which takes place in a police station. It revolves around two characters, the accused and the accuser. The movie is set in a police station and the events unfold in a span of two days. This is perhaps more realistic than Mahesh and only has light moments, which can communicate well with the audience – a social drama with a thriller effect. We couldn’t find a better title as we kept working on the plot. There is no room for any sort of comparison with Maheshinte Prathikaram.

Syam Pushkaran

Syam is the creative director of Thondimuthal...’When writer Sajeev Pazhoor told this story, it seemed very interesting. It points to a larger area. Later, when I talked about it to Syam and Shaiju Khalid, they too liked the plot. All of us worked on it and in six months, we had three drafts of the script. Though we started shooting with the completed script, a few changes had to be made, which had happened in the case of ‘Mahesh...’ as well. We shot according to the scene order.

Rajeev Ravi

To bring in Rajeev Ravi as the cinematographer was just a suggestion made to the co-director, but he advised me not to dream about it so I wouldn’t be disappointed. But one day when I met Rajeev Ravi, I told him the story. He liked it and agreed to do the movie. The brilliance of Rajeev Ravi is quite evident in the movie.

Fahad-Suraj combination

Fahad already had an idea about the plot. One day when I was talking to Suraj over the phone, I spoke about Thondimuthal...and he said OK as well. This is not a Fahad Fazil movie. There are four main characters: Fahad, Suraj, Alensier and the newcomer Nimisha Sajayan. All of them stunned us with their performance.

First Idukki, Now Kasaragod

Idukki indeed played a major role in Maheshinte Prathikaram. But this story can be placed anywhere. The writer had a village in Thiruvananthapuram, which shares border with Tamil Nadu, in his mind. Later, we decided that it could be at a different place. Though we have shot the movie in Kasaragod, this is not the story of Kasaragod.